TT52: The Legend of Hell House

Welcome to Hell House. We’re delighted you could come. We’re also certain you will find your stay most illuminating. Think of Matt and Jason as your unseen servants, and believe that during your stay, you will be taken over by the spirit of 1973’s The Legend of Hell House. May you find the answers that you seek amidst movie trivia, Matt’s exciting gin adventure, creative wordsmithing, psychic nonsense, Jason’s anglophilia, the mocking of ’90s music subculture and a host of other restless souls. After the evil has subsided, join M&J for post-movie chat on recent DVDs watched. Will YOU be the only one to make it out alive and sane?

2 thoughts on “TT52: The Legend of Hell House”

Ok, first off, Hell House a B+ film?!?! Matheson’s certainly entitled to think that, but I think Hell House is an A+ film. I also think think his script is MUCH better than his book. The book, by comparison, just dragged its feet from chapter to chapter, unlike the filmed version, which, imo, is much leaner and therefore more effective.

Other stuff, in the book it’s explained that the Lionel Barrett character is impotent. while this doesn’t come out in the film, it’s still pretty obvious that his relation with his wife is, at best, sterile. Other thing, Jason mentions a seen where Barrett and Fischer are having a conversation and it’s seen from a lowered perspective. Jason thought that it would have been more effcective had it been shot from above, implying the house itself was bearing down on them. But what if the lowered angle was used to imply that they were being spied upon by Belasco himself. I know this might be a stretch, but suppose the lowered angle might represent Belasco’s diminutive size. Considering how his deformity tormented him through his life, might not that same kind of psychic torment haunt him in death. Again, I know this is a huge stretch, but I thought it worth mentioning.

Wasn’t aware that the R2 disc contained the uncut print. Will have to get myself a copy.

Now as for Pamela Franklin, she’s probably the only other actress aside from Babs Steele whose sheer physical beauty can reduce me to monosyllabic grunts. Guess I got a thing for Brit girls with big eyes, go figure. And speaking of Pam, I had no idea she put her extra fine boobs on display in the film Necromancy. As soon as I heard that, I went and bought a copy of ioffer immediately. Am really looking forward to spending some quality time with that dvd!

Other things I learned from this episode, McDowall had an Arnessian sized schlong!

That Matt drinks gin and has a thing for gmilfs!

That TT can kill 2.5 hrs w/o making me look at the clock once!

Also, did either of you see the Hell House graphic novel that came out some years ago?

Interesting perspective on the low/high camera angle point and one that I had not considered before. This may have been a nice touch for repeat viewings of the film but likely would have been lost on first time viewers who hadn’t experienced the book first. Still, this may have been what Hough was aiming for much as Kubrick’s version of The Shining had some muddled points for those not familiar with that novel first (think the costumed party-goers at the finale).

As to the Hell House comic mini-series, I thought Ian Edginton’s artwork was magnificent but the day-glo colors perturbed me a smidgen. Overall, I thought it was a fine adaptation but it could have been greatly improved with some old-school four-color funny-book colorist working on it. I’m thinking inks by Tom Palmer and colors rendered by Marie Severin but even as I type this I’m chiding my inner geek for dribbling on my computer keyboard. No problemo, I’ll just wipe it off with Pamela Franklin’s underwear…